Evan's RV

[J Tiers]

If I was to take a wild guess, I'd say he has Aspergers

Not even a question, IMO. I had a family member who had a measured IQ somewhere north of 180, and that person was pretty much the same as Evan, only not as extreme. Yes, that family member was up the scale on the autism spectrum, so I'd have to say that Evan, in my unqualified observation and opinion must also be.

It seems to be almost universal that the very bright folks are up the scale. There is a linkage somewhere in there. But, the autism spectrum is one of those things in the "soft sciences" that seem to be able to place/fit almost anyone as being somewhere on the scale, whatever scale is under discussion (autism, bipolar syndrome, etc). So I don't know, and don't particularly want to.

Interestingly, the person I mentioned was also never (rarely anyhow) wrong, even if they were wrong, and was capable of the same type of spectacular wrongness that Evan sometimes got into. It seems to be the result of so often truly being literally the smartest person in the room, that it becomes an assumption that the person ALWAYS is the smartest, and that if someone else says something that seems wrong, then it IS wrong. Of course, that is not always the case, and the assumption of unvarying rightness is a trap which is easy for such people to fall into.

Such folks can get off on wrong tangents easily. Things like odd theories about food, etc, etc, which can have bad long term effects.

I thought he was an interesting sort, who would be worth talking to. I don't think he was chased away, at least partly because I doubt he would admit that anyone could. I think there was something else involved, particularly in light of his apparently erasing content.

Didn't dear old 3PL also erase large amounts of content, replacing it with huge blank spaces? He was another obviously quite smart person, with his own set of oddities. The similar behavior seems to suggest similar motivations, etc.

[bborr01]

Alan,
It's timely that you bring up Evan's name. Just yesterday I was thinking about starting a thread that involved our old friend Evan. I was thinking about the corona virus and how in some ways it is a lot like what Evan talked about in his "This is Scary News" thread. As I recall that thread was about Evian flu and how it could have spread but here we are less than ten years later with the entire world being turned upside down by this virus. Maybe if Evan could have teamed up with Fauchi they could have made a difference.

I used to tell my wife about some of Evan's posts and told here that I thought his posts were by an MIT college class or something like that because no one person could possess that much knowledge. And he wasn't all talk either. He posted several things on the "Shop Made Tools" thread that were pretty cool and he built his own CNC mill and converted his South Bend lathe to CNC way before I heard of anyone else doing that as a home shop machinist. Even if he used the internet to sleuth his information, you could tell that he had a thorough understanding of the subject. And he was almost always 100% objective in his thinking. He didn't care if something hurt someone's feelings as long as he was right. I really do miss him being here and feel that I'm a better person for having read his posts.

And speaking of long lost members, has anyone heard from Oldtiffie lately?. I always kind of wondered if he was able to time out the "binning" of his shop before life decided that wouldn't happen. He was good a drawing sketches to explain himself.

[bborr01]

Since I don't remember anything specific about Evan's posts I'll try a topic shift to say I do miss 3PL.

Me too but there's a difference. 3PL got banned if I recall correctly and Evan left on his onw free will. I miss them both. Even Airsmith was interesting but his fuel saving generator was something else.

After I started the shop made tools thread I copied several pages of posts and some of them were Evan's posts including the gear/keyway cutter for his lathe. I think the pictures are there too but I'd be reluctant to repost them as that wasn't his wishes. And one other thing is that I'd bet a thousand dollars that Evan kept every single post the he erased publicly. It's just how a mind like his works. Kind of a vanity thing. Whether anyone can ever find them is another story but I remember him as being a type of person that would keep those posts. He had his own servers way back in the day.

[RB211]

I'm surprised Sir John hasn't popped up in this thread, the back and fourth between him and Evan were epic.
On a lighter note, I haven't found any obituaries for Evan Williams that fit his description. So who wants to enroll in a class at the college and surprise Evan with an invite to come back?

[The Artful Bodger]

I do not expect to hear anything from Sir John.

[J Tiers]

I do not expect to hear anything from Sir John.

Perhaps "mention" of him was the point.......... and it was a self-fulfilling post.

[JRouche]

You guys? Talking about a person when they are not there to respond, how convenient. Cest la vie. Dog eat dog, Such is life with animals.

Umm last I talked with him was he was having to do other things. Yeah, odd as it may sound this forum, HSM forum was not the priority. Many other things were of much more importance at the time.

Bad mouth a person not standing = in front of you??? Naw. Not, not cool with me. Not that it matters. JR

[lynnl]

I suspect Even would be immensely flattered and delighted to know he is the subject of conversation, whether he's a participant or not.
Sort of a celebrity status thing...

[J Tiers]

I'm not dumping on Evan. He was a certain person, with certain characteristics. I get the point, and I hope the guy is OK.

But he did voluntarily leave, and erased many of his posts. That does tend to make a person fair game, it is a sort of "see yah, and BTW ***k **f" sort of exit.

[RB211]

I think all of us secretly are hoping he IS reading this thread and will cave in one day and say hello, if he is still alive. It's been a decade since he has left, has it not?

[A.K. Boomer]

Time fly's --- so much has happened since - I do look back and think the world has yet again lost more innocence since that era as things keep getting more and more complex and problematic...
Me and Evan really butted heads, iv learned allot from the guy and know I taught him a thing or two also, it was a fair trade and I have some pretty good memories of those times, he was a blockhead sometimes god lol
but so was I in my own way, I do remember giving him credit in area's - I also remember not one credit from him thrown in my direction as he could never ever admit error...



a very stubborn funny old bird - but one with so many different incredible projects going on, he was the king of diversity,,,
I also don't understand why he would delete everything, but I think it was beyond some kinda simple "na-na na-na-na" so tend not to take it personally...

still got that Yagi antenna he sent exact plans for me to be able to build, I will say this much, when you needed help with stuff he would volunteer his time, I did witness that many times with board members, I am still proud of that antenna - I remember calling it the "joint effort Evan AKB yagi signal catcher" and showed pics of it when completed - it does work pretty decent and is still at it even through all the crazy wind storms....

Hope your doing well old guy...

[aostling]

. . . I also don't understand why he would delete everything

I started this thread, but I don't have the power of deleting it. Maybe George can explain what happened to most of Evan's threads.

[JRouche]

I started this thread, but I don't have the power of deleting it. Maybe George can explain what happened to most of Evan's threads.

Hey man, I respect you as a good contributor to this forum. You didnt make a bad thread. I would hope you reconsider. Its an ok post and all is good right? You never have ill intentions. Its ok to bring up the past to reflect. JR

Oh, and FYI. I said it before and will again. I have this entire BBS saved (stolen) onto my own storage system from 99 to 2007 (or abouts). Its not lost or deleted I have all the conversations. I got bord stacking all the changing threads that got deleted for many of the threads. Tools being one. Just a though. JR

[alanganes]

I don't think he deleted all of his posts. I think all of the photos in his posts were hosted on his own server so they vanished when his servers either went off line or crashed, etc. But it looks to me like text of the stuff he posted still exists.

I don't think the phots vanishing was a malicious thing, he probably just had no reason to maintain the servers so they either went off line or crashed or whatever. I just tried searching for the word "telescope" with "Evan" as the author and get 389 results.

[Black Forest]

The forum is much better off without Evan. He was really losing it at the end. He was so impressed with himself and his brilliance. He at the end P.M.'d me and we had a very robust exchange. He told me things that I will not divulge here that were so far beyond strange and ridiculous. He told me his tested IQ which wasn't nearly as high as he would have liked it to be. He also said he was tested for Asberger's and he was not on the spectrum. He was a legend in his own mind. Some of the stuff he wrote to me was not even borderline crazy and dangerous but over the top criminal. I hammered him really hard and after this exchange he quit the forum. You all can thank me he is gone. He was actually quite fragile in his mind. He is certainly one that should not be allowed on any University campus.